Snail Mail
In some aspects I am very old-fashioned. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy technological advances and make full use of them. Would I have had the courage to move to China 30 years ago, when e-mail and Skype didn’t exist and the only way to keep in touch with your family and friends was writing letters that took a month to arrive, or making very expensive phone calls? I don’t know. But for sure it would have been more difficult. Nowadays if you miss your mum you just have to whatsapp or viber her. Very convenient!
When I was young I loved writing letters. Every summer, when I was away from my hometown for 3 months, my friends and I exchanged letters. They were a lot of fun. I still keep them all in a box at my parents’ place and I like re-reading them from time to time.
But the internet has basically killed conventional mail. No one writes letters anymore, it seems like a waste of time. And I think it is very sad, as nothing can replace the joy of finding a little hand-written envelope in your mailbox. I used to love checking our mailbox every day.
However I have to confess I almost stopped using snail mail too. Now I only use it for special occasions, for example some birthdays. But I still like writing postcards when I travel somewhere. The first time C. and I went to Hong Kong together we bought a couple of postcards, wrote them while we were having lunch in a restaurant (without peeking what the other was writing!) and sent to each other. We received them when we were back in Suzhou.
These past summers, when I traveled to England and Portugal, unfortunately without C., I sent him postcards. They usually arrive when I’m already back, but he doesn’t expect them and his excitement is totally worth it. Even though I can’t see his face when he receives them because I send them to his office, but the moment he sees them I get a lot of crying and hearts through Wechat emojis.
Postcard I sent C. from Ponta da Piedade, Portugal. I actually didn’t know about this place and I decided to visit it after buying this postcard because it looked amazing! And it was indeed amazing.
Flying bus in London. The story was in the back…
… unbelievable, right??
What about you? Do you still use conventional mail at all?
I love getting postcards! A couple of months ago, Lindt launched a new product in South Africa, and their promotional tactic involved allowing people to write a message on a postcard to anyone, anywhere in the world and they promised to send it! :D I though it was really cool since most people who live far away communicate simply via social media or something.
My boyfriend and I decided to write one to each other. And honestly, the anticipation for that postcard to come was extraordinary! I would check my mailbox every single day until it finally came like a week later! Sadly, his one took longer… like a month and we thought it got lost :( but it finally came (turns out he didn’t give me his postal code so the post office had to find it haha). But he finally got it and he was so ecstatic.
In a way, it was an awesome social experiment to see how even though IMs and social media give us instant gratification, the thrill one gets in snail mail is amazing!
Oh wow that is an interesting promotional strategy haha.
In Suzhou there are a lot of small coffee shops where you can send a postcard to the future… You write it, give it to them and they will send it on the date you choose. I have never tried it.
Wow! That sounds pretty awesome! Haha! You should try it out sometime :D
Me encanta el correo de toda la vida. Cuando estuve en Tailandia en el 2000, a parte de un millón de mails, creo que envié a mi familia unas 60 postales… Ya sabes que soy un rato pesada.
Eso no es ser pesada, mola!!
I still love snail mail and always have. I remember in grade school I would send letters to my friends during the summer (that was in the early 90’s before internet!). I still send letters to my grandma and I send postcards to my family and close friends whenever I take a trip. My grandma has saved everything and she gave me all my old letters and postcards recently (nearly a decade’s worth) and it was interesting to go through them.
I also used to write letters to my grandma when I arrived to Beijing! Back then she was living in a residency for elders and it seems my letters were read aloud for everybody to hear haha.
My husband loves sending postcards whenever we travel. He likes to send them to our Chinese address (even more so than sending them to friends). I’m not sure why, maybe it’s a nice memory?
I think it is a great memory :)
It’s true that we have nothing to complain about as expats living in China, since it’s SO easy to keep in touch with our friends and family back home. Just like we shouldn’t complain about our 15+ hour plane rides when back in the day people had to travel by boat. Hehe. ;)
We haven’t sent anything from China, but we have received a couple things from family back home. I know snail mailing is going out of fashion, but I totally agree with you nothing is as good as finding a hand-written envelope in your mailbox!
How long does it take for mail to get to and from Spain?
Well at least in the boat they had more space to move around :D
If it is a letter, around 2 weeks, if it is a package it depends if you choose air mail or a slower and cheaper option. The cheapest takes around one month.
I’ve recently started exchanging letters with old friends againーit’s so much fun! It takes time at first because it feels like I don’t know what to say anymore. We keep in touch regularly online, so what is there left to say?… Or so I thought. I find we can have “deeper” conversations via letters than through email and chat, even if it starts as kind of a monologue. There are no interruptions, and you can really talk about the important things. :) I’m not as good with postcards, though I love receiving them! I haven’t been traveling recently, but I should start getting into the routine of sending those too. ^^
Loved the bus story!
Oooh that is lovely!! I should suggest doing the same to my friends :D Not sure if they will agree though… Haha!
I have a postcards collection and I don’t have any from Japan I think, do you want to do a postcard exchange? :D
They might be convinced if you start first? :)
Oh, that sounds like a great idea! I’ll be doing some traveling inside Japan too, so maybe I’ll be able to get some nicer ones than “just” Tokyo. I’ll send you a PM later. :)
Yay! *^_^*
I used to exchange letters in friends in high school. We all went to different schools and wrote handwritten letters to each other once a a week on these fancy, decorative slips of paper. As we grew older, we didn’t have time for that anymore. I miss those days. Each handwritten letter is special – you sit down, recollect your thoughts and pen down your feelings very slowly.
Agree with elenimichelle that modern communication methods like text messages and Whatsapp give us instant gratification. But it’s a great and affordable way to keep in touch with those close to you back home when you’re in a foreign land – makes home a bit closer to us :)
Oh yes, I also used the fancy paper when I was in primary school haha. We wrote letters to each other even though we were in the same class!
Before my grandparents passed away, I used to always write letters and send pictures to them through the mail. And when I received something from them, it always put a smile on my face. My grandmother sent all sorts of things, from valentines to little things she picked up for no reason.
I also used to write letters to my grandma when I was in Beijing! But by that time she was already very old and she couldn’t really write a reply. My letters were read to her aloud and I know she enjoyed them. We were always very close :)